THE HARMONY OF NATURE.

Yet past your burst of anger, again you own his sway,
Ye come to him with tribute, ye hear him and obey!
He heweth down and rendeth the patriarchs of the wood,
He fashions them to Palaces that bear him o'er the flood.
Next the boundless realms of air must be subject to his pride,
And lo! the startled Eagle beholds him at his side.

On earth a mighty agent impels him with a speed,

Which mocks the fleetest gallop of the desert nurtured steed:
Intelligence his sceptre, his weapon and his shield,

Who shall limit the results that his enterprise may yield.
How glorious is his heritage! how loud should be His praise,
When even things inanimate, a song of gladness raise !
The bounteous gifts of Providence forever round him shower,
For him the wild birds carol, and for him the bursting flower,
From the jeweled arch of heaven, to the daisy chequered sod,
Is one continued banquet for the masterpiece of God!

17

AND the Frost too, has a melodious ministry! You will hear its crystals shoot in the dead of a clear night, as if the moonbeams were splintering like arrows on the ground and you listen to it the more earnestly, that it is the going on of one of the most cunning and beautiful of nature's deep mysteries. I know nothing so wonderful as the shooting of a crystal! God has hidden its principle from the inquisitive eye of the philosopher, and we must be content to gaze on its exquisite beauty, and listen in mute wonder, to the noise of its invisible workmanship. It is too fine a knowledge for us. We shall comprehend it when we know how "the morning stars sang together."

N. P. WILLIS.

Choughts on the Quakers.

THE following sentiment was published by a clergyman of the Church of England.

"For my part, I conscientiously believe, that there is more of the spirit of true religion in the idolatry that kneels in mistaken, though heartfelt gratitude, to a sculptured image, than in the deliberate mockery which sends up solemn sounds from thoughtless tongues. This is a rock of temptation which the Quakers have avoided, in dispensing with the inspiration of song: they at least, shun its abuses and if they really succeed in filling their hour with intense religious meditation and spiritual communion: if from their still retreat, the waves of this boisterous world are excluded, and send hither no disturbing-if no calculations of interest, and no sanguine plans are there prosecuted; and no hopes, nor fears, nor regrets, nor triumphs, nor recollections; nor any other flowers that grow this side the grave, are gathered and pressed to the bosom, on the margin of these quiet waters; if in short, the very silence of the scene, is not too much for the feeble heart of man, which if deprived of the stay of external things, will either fall back on itself, or else will rove to the world's end, to expend its restless activity in a field of chaotic imaginings: if I say, the Quakers are so happy as to escape these perils, together with the seductions to vanity which music and preaching present, then must their worship be the purest of all worships, and their absence of forms, be the perfection of all form."

THE good old motto was never more important than in the present day of polemical strife and sectarian prejudice: In essentials, unity in non essentials, Liberty in all things, Charity. J. J. G.

comes.

The Character of the Saviour.

IN the character of our Saviour, the mind and the heart rest satisfied; the more it is studied the more holy and beautiful it beDoes the mind ask for submission? seek it in his childhood, while he was subject to his parents: for youthful dignity? see him standing in the midst of the temple, sublime in youth and power, reasoning with the doctors and lawyers, with a wisdom which astonished even those who questioned him on subjects which had been, to them the study of a life-time. Does it ask for humility and forbearance? find him washing his disciples' feet, and sitting at the same board with publicans and sinners: for true and gentle charity, listen to his voice when he says to the sinful woman woman where are thine accusers? Go in peace and sin no more." Does it ask a heart full of gentle and domestic sympathy? follow him to the grave of Lazarus, or to the bier of the widow's son for benevolence? let the mind dwell for a moment on the cleansed leper, on the blind restored to sight, and on that heart stirring scene where he stood in the midst of the multitude, while the sick man was let down through the roof that he might heal him for firmness? go to the wilderness where the Son of God fasted and was sorely tempted forty days and forty nights: for energy? witness it in the overthrowing of the money-tables, while those who had desecrated the temple, were cast forth from the place they had polluted: for wisdom? read it in every act of his life, and in every line of his sermon on the mount: for prudence? see it in his answer given to the chief priests, when they brought him the tribute money for patience, forgiveness, and all the gentle attributes that form the Christian character in its perfection, follow him to the Garden: witness his prayer and his agony of spirit: dwell on his patient and gentle speech, when he returned from that scene of pain, and found even his disciples asleep: reflect on his meekness and forbearance, when the traitor's lip

was on his cheek: on the hand so readily extended to heal the ear of the maimed soldier. Go with him to the place of trial, and to that last dreadful scene which caused the grave to give up its dead, and the solid earth to tremble beneath the footsteps of his persecutors. Dwell upon his life, and upon every separate act of his life, and the soul must become imbued with a sense of its health, beauty and holiness.

Grief.

COUNT each affliction, whether light or grave,
God's messenger sent down to thee. Do thou
With courtesy receive him: rise and bow :
And ere his shadow pass thy threshold, crave
Permission first his heavenly feet to lave.
Then lay before him all thou hast. Allow
No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow,
Or mar thy hospitality no wave

Of mortal tumult to obliterate

The soul's marmoreal calmness. Grief should be
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate.

Confirming, cleansing, humbling, making free:

Strong to consume small troubles to commend

Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end.

AUBREY DE VERE.

GOOD qualities are the substantial riches of the mind: but

'tis good breeding sets them off.

LOCKE.

Cemperaments.

A FALSE standard of action determines nothing but the blindness or the bigotry of him who erects it. It is not meritorious, it is not blameworthy, to have a sanguine or nervous, a bilious or lymphatic temperament. It was a fortunate circumstance that Luther was not Melancthon, and that Melancthon was not Luther. The reformation could not have spared either of them without loss. They were of one spirit; but the manifestation of that spirit was widely different in those distinguished reformers. Peter and John, Paul and Apollos, had their distinctive characteristics; yet they all heartily espoused the cause of their Lord and Master, and continued faithful unto death. The state of the heart is not infallibly determined by any degree of physical activity or quiescence. Let not him who, in whatever he undertakes, is as impetuous as a mountain torrent, reprove him who is habitually like a gentle stream; and let not the constitutionally mild, censure the constitutionally severe. Gentleness of spirit is not incompatible with intense energy of action.-The Lamb of God is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Abstinence from denunciation is no evidence of sweetness of temper; a soft and persuasive disposition is not necessarily evincive of a slight abhorrence of iniquity, or a feeble regard for the cause of righteousness. Perfect love does not consist of similarity of tastes or identity of temperament. One star differs from another star in glory; nevertheless, they are lights in the heavens, and utter the same language:

"The hand that made us is divine."

It is not for the sun to reprimand the moon for her coldness, -to say to her-"Why do you not flame as I do? you are so frigid, that even icebergs are impervious to your rays, and all vegetation would perish under your influence. See how I